Stalin would never have had a chance to gain power. Leninism, which is more liberal minded on social policies and a little less authoritarian would be the policy of the Soviet Union instead of Stalinism, which is more conservative minded on social policies and a little more authoritarian.

Trotsky, and other high Soviet leaders would be more powerful, since Stalin's purges wouldn't exist.

However, the Soviet Union might never have survived WWII if Lenin or Trotsky were in power instead of Stalin, and the world may have been Fascist.

Lying on the hill, crawling over the windowsill into your living room, they stare out, glass-eyed aimless heads, bodies torn by vultures. You are the man whose hands are rank with the smell of death. - Peter Hammill, "The Emperor in His War Room"

At 4/23/2013 6:27:55 PM, daytonanerd wrote:What if Vladimir Lenin didn't have health problems, and lived a long life, living to age 90, and was still the head of the Soviet Union? What would have happened?

Lenin would have probably had Stalin executed after he gave his speech at the 17th party congress. You can figure out the rest.

At 4/23/2013 6:27:55 PM, daytonanerd wrote:What if Vladimir Lenin didn't have health problems, and lived a long life, living to age 90, and was still the head of the Soviet Union? What would have happened?

Stalin would have had Lenin fall ill, and many believe he had a hand in his death anyway. Stalin immediately created the cult of Lenin and put him in that glass box in the tomb in red square. Stalin had his trajectory figured out early on.